


Here Comes the Fire

by MegumitheGreat



Series: Shameless Mitchentine what-ifs, inserts, and fixes [13]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, One Shot, Self-Indulgent, Walkers (Walking Dead), What-If, one shot series, scene insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 07:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20327134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: The bomb goes off in the boat's boiler, causing the explosion that separates all the kids.  Clementine plans to sacrifice herself to ensure her friends can escape the beach.





	Here Comes the Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is another one that's just been sitting. It really doesn't change much from the game's dialogues. And sure as hell I'm going to take that tiny tiny opportunity to make Mitch worry about Clementine! Following from In the Pines [Louis Captured].

Clementine’s ears were ringing loudly after the initial explosion rocked the boat and threw most of everyone overboard. Besides her, Lilly’s perforated body was still there, sliding to the downed side as the boat slowly began to capsize. There were seven holes in her head alone, and Clementine realized that perhaps letting AJ shoot her to save their friends was a mistake. He had mangled her face, left her unrecognizable, and demonstrated the monstrous anger and hatred he held in his young heart.

The massive flames burned brightly into the early morning sky. She couldn’t find AJ, and she forced herself to remain calm. She couldn’t find anyone—Tenn, James, Lilly’s soldiers. Everyone had been thrown off. She found a small lifeboat on the side of the vessel. Without hesitation, Clementine made her way over to it.

“Clem!” AJ called out to her. He was hanging onto something for dear life. Walkers were swarming in the waters below, so if he slipped off or let go, he would have been eaten immediately.

Clementine wasn’t going to let that happen. She reached out her arms, asking him to jump. At first, the little boy was terrified, but she promised him that she would catch him. AJ let go of whatever it was he was holding, sliding down the slanted deck and into her hands. Now the two had to get off the boat before it exploded again.

AJ pointed to the awning that covered the pier. If they could use it as a net, then they could jump down and escape into the forest. Clementine set him first, encouraging him to make the jump and to meet her on the other side. Then when she jumped over, the two leapt down to the pier. Someone from the boat was still waiting for them with Marlon’s bow ready to pierce their skulls. They snuck behind a few crates as he shot at them, and once an arrow stuck close enough to Clementine that she could grab it, she used the weapon against him. Stabbing his foot, she stunned him. Just as quickly, she took the bow from him and fired an arrow into the back of his head.

“We’ve got to find everyone else,” she told AJ. She took his hand, and as soon as they took a step, they heard another explosion.

Without another minute to spare, they ran from the pier. Behind them, the boat thundered out one last great bang as it was engulfed completely in flames and the shrapnel fell onto the awning. Clementine and AJ looked back at the destruction they had done, feeling bittersweet about destroying all evidence that the raiders had even come to their part of the woods.

“Clem! AJ!” someone called out to them from the darkness of the forest. 

Mitch and Louis emerged from the bushes, the former leaning on the latter’s shoulder despite both of them being compromised by their experiences. But Mitch didn’t wait for Louis to help him to her. His knee was still in bad shape, but he managed to hobble his way to her. He threw his arms around her, hugging her tightly before she gave him a relieved kiss.

“I’m so glad to see you!” Clementine told him. And when Louis approached them, she hugged him, too. “Have you found everyone else?”

“No, we’re still looking,” Mitch said. He leaned on his good leg. “We’ve got to hurry, though. That explosion is going to bring a metric fuck-ton of walkers.”

Violet came crawling out of the water. She was somewhat dazed, but she was okay. She met with the four on the shore. “Oh, good, you’re all alive,” she said. Then she saw Aasim and Omar walking to them as well. With most of their group now together, they just had to find Ruby, Willy, and Tenn. It wasn’t going to be easy with the horde of walkers that they had used to infiltrate the boat turning on them now. Not only that, but if they all tried to make a break for some sort of safety, they would be trapped. Clementine, hiding behind another indiscernible set of cover, peered over the edge. Another soldier was guarding a cart that was going to be used to drag the kids by force back to the Delta. Just as she saw the cart and horse, the soldier collapsed. A very small person ran toward it and defended it then waved at her.

“That’s Willy!” Mitch said. “He’s okay…awesome.” He looked closely at the cart. Ruby had approached the horse and calmed it.

“We need to get to that cart,” Violet said.

“Through all those walkers?” Aasim questioned her. “That’s insane. We’ll never make it!”

They heard gunshots coming west of the cart and their friends. The last of Lilly’s soldiers—Sullene, Minerva, and a third woman—were fighting off the zombies as best as they could, but everyone except Minerva fell. The lost cause of a twin fell into a blind rage, shooting them one by one until she ran out of bullets. Then she picked up the ax that had been left out for wood-chopping, chopping as many walkers as she could while screaming into the night.

Clementine, Violet, and Louis felt sorry for her, but nevertheless she was the diversion they needed. As their de facto leader, Clementine took a breath.

“I’ll cover you,” she said. “Get to the cart as fast as you can.”

“Clem, no, we can’t leave you—” Mitch started.

“I’ll follow once I’ve made the path. You’ve got to trust me.”

Mitch puffed up again like he always did when he didn’t like something. Instead of being angry that she was sacrificing herself, he worried for her. Three walkers in a greenhouse was nothing compared to the hundreds—maybe thousands—that were roaming the woods and beach. He knew that she was more than capable of protecting herself, and yet he wanted to stay with her. He wanted to help her no matter what injuries he had.

“Aasim and Omar will go first. Then Louis. Violet, I need you to help Mitch to the cart.” Clementine didn’t dare to look at her boyfriend. He didn’t want to go without her, and she knew that. They had no choice. She clenched Marlon’s bow. “We’ve got to move.”

Aasim held Omar on his shoulder. He waited for Clementine to cut a path through the monsters dragging toward them, and once they had that chance, they hustled to the cart. Louis followed close behind.

“Clem, I’ll go with you,” Mitch said.

“No, you have to go. I’ll be right behind you; don’t worry.”

“Yeah, I got her back,” AJ promised.

“Mitch, move your ass,” Violet snapped at him. 

Mitch glared at her then softened his look when he turned back to Clementine. She only offered him a determined look before nodding to the girl next to him. The path had closed up, and Clementine shot the walkers down again. Violet dragged Mitch through the crowd as best as she could without throwing his knee out of place. The injury sustained at Lilly’s hand wouldn’t heal for a long time, and it infuriated him. They arrived at the cart, and they carefully climbed into it. Ruby was sitting on the horse’s back while Willy, Aasim, and Louis pulled Omar and Mitch in further. Violet sat at the opening of the cart ready to catch Clementine and AJ.

As luck would have it, they wouldn’t make it. Minerva saw them from the herd that was trying to consume her like a fine dinner. She had a grenade without its pin in her hand, and Clementine’s immediate reaction was to shoot her with an arrow. She missed her head what with being so far away. Instead, she shot her in the shoulder, which made her drop the grenade. And upon impact on the ground, it exploded.

“Whoa!” Ruby said to calm the horse she had captured. Completely spooked by the blast, the horse took off into the forest. “Shit, Clementine!”

“No, no, no, we’ve gotta stop!” Violet gasped. “Ruby!”

“I-I can’t stop it! Come on now, calm down!”

“Clementine!” Mitch yelled once he realized there was no stopping the horse. He reached out the back of the cart then slammed his fist down on the flatbed. “Fucking—Clem!”

Clementine and AJ’s hearts stopped hearing their receding voices. Their one chance at escape was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to get this one up, because...I've got maybe 2 or 3 ideas (I'll more the more I play TWDG), at least one of which will be a multichapter fic. But I just want to keep writing soft Mitch :T


End file.
